The Research On Thomas Hill Green's Ethical Thought

Thomas hill green is a famous British philosopher of the 19th century and an important representative of the new Hegelianism.He lives in the transition period of liberal capitalism to monopoly capitalism,social contradictions was very sharp.In which The abuse of empiricism and laissez-faire outlook has been emerged,people objectively calls for the birth of new theory.Green absorbs a lot of nourishment from the German classical philosophy represented by Kant and Hegel,and puts forward the new liberalism:he opposes empiricism and advocates speculative philosophy;He opposes utilitarianism and emphasizes individual moral responsibility;He also opposes laissez-faire and advocated state intervention.These are reflected in his ethical thoughts.With the background of critical empiricism,Green reconstructed the foundation of the metaphysics of ethics.He believes that self-consciousness is the source of morality,and only through consciousness can we know the objective world.He puts forward to subverting the traditional view of freedom and dividing it into free will,legal freedom and moral freedom.The freedom of the will is caused by the strong motivation of people's inner,which can influence the will of the external behavior,and it' s also the condition of realizing moral freedom.The purpose of legal freedom is to protect individual freedom,to coordinate social and human relations,and to realize individual freedom to the protection of moral freedom.He emphasized the personal-based outlook and encouraged the individual to actively realize the right of self and freedom,which is also the realization of personal moral and good.Promoting positive national outlook and in favor of state intervention,Green thinks that the law should limit free which brings harm to the society and does something by their own willing,at the same time,the law should guarantee personal real opportunity for self development and provide further conditions for moral life.The state is an institution that promotes the common good of society and has the right and responsibility to promote the common welfare of the society.In general;Green ethics which adhere to the moral principle of metaphysical construct,the idealistic pursuit,for the promotion of the overall interests,and it helps to keep people from the emotional satisfaction in experience rises to the spirit of self-actualization,from the pursuit of the physical happiness to supreme good,from clinging to selfish interests for the promotion and maintain of the interests of whole country,they have certain rationality.However,from its theoretical foundations,he finally went to the pursuit of spiritual fulfillment of idealism,and he claimed his national interests,public interests,in the final analysis,which finally realized from the perspective of individual interests,so it's still individualism.